Under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture and Taichung City Government, Flowers of Immense Charm – A Masterpiece Exhibition by Four Major Museums is co-organized by the National Palace Museum, Tokyo Fuji Art Museum, CHIMEI Museum, and National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, and is expressly organized during the same time as the Taichung World Flora Exposition. This is a cultural event with Prof. Hsiao Chong-Ray serving as the exhibition’s chief curator; curators from the four museums also execute integrations and analyses. They have chosen the widely loved “flowers” as the theme of the exhibition, exploring different meanings and characteristics embodied by flowers that are depicted in artworks from different cultures. This is an exhibition that is suitable for people of all ages, and is also one that holds profound academic value.

A range of artworks of diverse styles is presented under the vivid and vibrant overarching floral theme, with the metaphors and profound meanings of flowers conveyed by the artworks examined. With a medley of artistic styles presented, different nationalities, cultures, and philosophical realizations about nature and life are also recounted, forming an epitome of human history and values encompassing different cultures and across different eras, which is profoundly etched with the prolifically rich image of flowers.

On view in the exhibition are select artworks from three major museums from northern, central, and southern Taiwan and also the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum. The transnational exchange and inter-museum collaboration are aimed at showcasing four different cultural contexts, worldviews, and value systems that have originated from Taiwan, China, Japan, and the West.

Based on the notable features of the four museums’ collections, this collaborative exhibition is categorized into the following: The National Palace Museum will be showing a selection of ceramics, objects, calligraphies, paintings, poems, and Chinese painting manuals; Western sculptures, oil paintings, and furniture from the 17th century and onwards will be presented by the CHIMEI Museum; the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum has selected a collection of screens, calligraphies and paintings from the Edo period; and the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts will present a range of artworks including oil, gouache, and watercolor paintings created during the New Art Movement in Taiwan’s Japanese colonial period to contemporary multimedia creations, which include digital images and installations.

The artworks on view in this exhibition demonstrate a wide range of genre and temporal dimension, showcasing artworks of different expressions, including objects, paintings, sculptures, spatial installations, new media art, and more. The artworks span across a millennium, extending from the 11th century to the year 2017.

In addition to the select artworks from the four museums’ collections, artworks by 20 Taiwanese contemporary artists are also presented in the exhibition, with the objective of highlighting Taiwan’s diverse cultural and art features. Moreover, in the midst of Asia’s symbiotic cultural development aligned with the rest of the world, a cultural perspective that defines Taiwan’s subjectivity and how art is interpreted is also constructed.

The chief curator Prof. Hsiao Chong-Ray believes that: on the whole, the different museum collections also highlight the ethnic characteristics of different cultures: from the collections of Chinese royalty, the works exhibited by the National Palace Museum reveal the artistry of skilled craftsmanship and reflect the scientific understanding and human restraint in governance for the welfare of the people. In contrast, the commercialism of Japan since the Edo Period reveals the sense of resignation toward life’s limitations among Japan’s upper classes as well as provides a glimpse into the rich and self-sufficient lives of the ordinary people; especially in the numerous folded screens with the change of seasons as its theme, and using the “pair” or “composite” technique in form, to reveal the deep-seated aesthetic consciousness and character of the Japanese people. Meanwhile, Western classicism, specifically the artistic character since the rococo period, combines the mythological imagination of Greek culture, not only in an eternal tug of war between the finite and the infinite, but also reflecting the life attitudes of optimism, pragmatism and practical of the people in the Western world.

As for the role of the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, it is the abundant expression of the interweaving, stimulating diversity of cultures, with the elegance and subtlety of the heavy color painting from Japan, the depth and agility of Chinese brush and ink renderings, as well as the bold attempt and soaring imagination of Western culture.

Our hope is for the artworks and activities arranged for the exhibition to encourage the general public to actively take part in cultural events. Besides appreciating the union of art and lifestyle aesthetics, through the various symbolisms expressed through flowers, we hope that the audience could also enjoy a sense of elevated spirituality and to gain more epiphanies about life through art appreciation.